By Paul Semendinger
September 21, 2023
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I had fun with this yesterday, so I figured I'd see what is trending on Twitter and give my opinions on what people are saying about the Yankees once again.
First, on our own feed, we noted that today is Sam McDowell's birthday.
Happy Birthday to Sudden Sam!
TWEET NUMBER ONE:
I would like to see the Yankees decision making team replaced for 2024, but if Brian Cashman is still the General Manager and if Aaron Boone is still the manager, what difference would it make if Don Mattingly were on the staff? Big change is needed. Huge changes are needed. Don Mattingly won't fix things if the process itself isn't changed. That's one of the problems. Small changes are not needed, big ones are. And, by all accounts, the big (and necessary) changes are not coming.
The Yankees felt they went "big" by firing their hitting coach Dillon Lawson and bringing in Sean Casey. The results? The Yankees' had a team batting average of .231 (certainly not good) when Lawson was fired. Under Casey, the Yankees have batted .216. Casey, of course, had never been a coach before. The Yankees keep hiring coaches who have never coached before. The Yankees seem to believe that the Major Leagues are the place to get one's experience. This is the problem. The people making the decisions consistently and continually make bad decisions.
Don Mattingly is one of my baseball heroes from my late childhood. I don't want him to be part of this disaster. Why would I want him to be part of this?
On the other hand, if the Yankees completely change their approach and begin to value experience, leadership, baseball smarts, and such... and if he had the chance to work under a new manager in a new system, sure, I'd love to see Mattingly in pinstripes once again.
Sadly, I don't see big changes happening, so I hope Donnie Baseball stays away.
TWEET NUMBER TWO:
I wish Jasson Dominguez all the best. This must not be easy on him - at all. He has months and months of tough rehab ahead of him. None of this is easy. It's very difficult.
I wish the Yankees, and others, wouldn't put a timeline on his recovery. People have already started counting, "Nine months? He'll be back by May!" Then, if he's not back by May, there will be this sense of failure on some level. Dominguez should not be rushed back. At all. If it takes 13 months, so be it. If it takes 18 months, it is what it is.
I do not like how so many (almost every single person) is downplaying the impact of a major surgery. Not every player comes back. There should not be any expectations placed on the kid, but there they go already...
Once again, giving this timeline is the wrong approach - especially coming from the team itself.
TWEET NUMBER THREE:
This is part of what I was saying in the game recap from earlier this morning. The 2023 Yankees have been bad... real bad. Take away their records against the Royals (3-0), A's (5-1) and Tigers (5-2) and you can see how bad they've been. (For the record, against the rest of baseball, the Yankees are 63-73.) It's been awful. It's been dreadful. There is no way the Yankees can call this season a success in any way.
Think about how bad the Yankees were from 1989 to 1992 - this team is worse than those teams in division play. That speaks volumes.
TWEET NUMBER FOUR:
This is exactly the way many many fans feel about the Yankees. People are very down on the organization and the leadership. The sad thing is the Yankees have done nothing to change this perspective.
This is going to be a very important off-season for the Yankees to prove they are serious about winning. And I'm not sure they are...
TWEET NUMBER FIVE:
Let's end on a big positive note.
CONGRATULATIONS AUSTIN WELLS! I hope this is the first of many.
